Red Bull Ring: Glock powers clear for first win of 2016

BMW Team RMG's Timo Glock produces an imperious performance to secure his first DTM win since Oschersleben 2015 at the Red Bull Ring.

BMW Team RMG's Timo Glock has powered to his first DTM win of the 2016 campaign with relative ease after snatching the lead early in proceedings at the Red Bull Ring.

The ex-F1 driver perfectly made up for the disappointment of losing his second place last time out at the Hockenheimring to secure his third career DTM win.

Pole man Jamie Green successfully retained his lead into turn one after having to immediately cover off the threat from Antonio Felix da Costa.

As Da Costa attacked, Green's defence compromised the Portuguese drivers entry into the first corner, which gave Glock the impetus to quickly climb up into second position.

Finding himself directly behind the race leader, Glock didn't waste any time in disposing of Green and sailed past the Rosberg run Audi with relative ease.

However, just as Glock assumed the lead, a brief safety car period kept the German within range of Green.

That wasn't to last long though as the RMG driver very rapidly set about escaping from Green's DRS window.

Instead of pushing Glock at the front, Green had to turn his attentions back to Da Costa, who began to pressure the Brit for second.

But Da Costa's exuberance in pursuit of second left the Team Schnitzer driver out of shape towards the end of the seventh lap and dropped from third sixth in the space of one corner, allowing Team Abt's to seize the initiative - for now.

As the pit phase loomed, Glock established a healthy two-second buffer ahead of Green and was the first of the front runners to make the mandatory stop on lap 16.

Green stayed out for a full four laps longer than Glock but re-joined behind the net race leader with more or the less the same two second deficit.

Glock continued to manage the gap back to Green but the race for the final step on the rostrum threatened to blow the BMW drivers race apart.

Having made the pit-stop phase work to his advantage, Da Costa fought his way back into contention for third position and sat directly behind the Audi RS 5 of Mortara.

Da Costa initially appeared to have made the move stick but Mortara - attempting to force the issue back on the inside of turn four - clattered into the BMW and spun out as a result.

As it was, the furore proved academic as a superbly profitable stint from Team Abt's Mattias Ekstrom catapulted the double champion ahead of the pack into third.

Never one to shy away from alternative strategy, Ekstrom led the mid-part of the race and made his stop far later than most on lap 29 - emerging behind Glock and Green.

With fresher tyres, Ekstrom prolonged his charge and demoted Green to third within the final six-minutes of the race, although Glock's advantage was a bridge too far for the Swedish veteran.

While Audi completed the remainder of the podium, BMW locked out positions four to seven - led by Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin, Tom Blomqvist and race one winner Marco Wittmann.

Team Phoenix's Mike Rockenfeller was eighth ahead of Bruno Spengler and Timo Scheider.

Scheider's tenth place came at the expense of ART Grand Prix's Gary Paffett, meaning Mercedes left the second race at Austria empty-handed.